The great house revival. RTÉ 1, Sunday 9pm

Lisha

Anyone watching?

I’m prepared to drool at fabulousness ...

James 007

Did they say the bought it for 80K. If so it was a steal for that.

Citizenpain

Joined late , where is it?

Lisha

Citizenpain wrote: »

Joined late , where is it?

Co Mayo

James 007

Mayo, didnt pick up the name of the town

Citizenpain

Ballinafad House in Co. Mayo.

Lisha

Only disadvantage I can see to this program is that I don’t see how they can even be nearly finished by the end of the show... I need the closure

Kuva

Who wants to be a millionaire is over, we'll all pile on in here in half an hour on the +1

Lisha

Ah stop it’s truly amazing

Azatadine

Unbelievable. Amazing.

honeybear

Loved this show

Lisha

Cortecs wrote: »

Unbelievable. Amazing.

It’s miraculous , I’m all outta words

iamwhoiam

What an achievement !

Citizenpain

Wonder how much is done

BattleCorp

A good RTE programme. Who'd have thunk it. :-)

august12

James 007 wrote:

Did they say the bought it for 80K. If so it was a steal for that.

Yes, 80,000 in 2013.

enricoh

Nothing phases yer man - cool as ice!. 500k - some serious work done for that.
Really shows up the prices paid for an extension on room to improve as complete rip offs.
No wedding venue I was ever in would be half as nice as that

Cheshire Cat

That was VERY impressive! Well done to Bede.

Water John

Not very gone on old houses, but really, tipping my hat, to this guy. He has an uncanny feeling for the work. Both in the detail and the overall vision.

nuac

That house had been vacant for years. A lot of work done

James 007

enricoh wrote: »

Nothing phases yer man - cool as ice!. 500k - some serious work done for that.
Really shows up the prices paid for an extension on room to improve as complete rip offs.
No wedding venue I was ever in would be half as nice as that

You really cant say that. He is an experienced cabinet maker and he did all the sash windows himself with a guy the he trained up. That saved a 1/4 of a million alone. Never mind the parque flooring, he reinstated that too.

hometruths

Poor lad looked absolutely wrecked by the end of the program. I'd say he worked night and day to do that.

Jeff2

They did a lovely job and the income from the show would have helped but to have as a wedding venue in the part of the country.

Read the wedding forum.

mel.b

Is it available on the player? I can't see it

Addle

enricoh wrote: »

Nothing phases yer man - cool as ice!. 500k - some serious work done for that.
Really shows up the prices paid for an extension on room to improve as complete rip offs.
No wedding venue I was ever in would be half as nice as that

Really was amazing.
A total labour of love.
The sacrifices he made.
If they ever open it to the public for something other than weddings, I'll definitely support it.

BattleCorp

Addle wrote: »

Really was amazing.
A total labour of love.
The sacrifices he made.
If they ever open it to the public for something other than weddings, I'll definitely support it.

I think he hit the nail on the head when he said that he wasn't in it for the money. He'll never get his money back out of it from weddings and functions. The only way he might get his money back is if he sells it.

Fair play to him though, he did an amazing job. He got an amazing amount of work done for the money that he spent. It's a crying shame that so many of those houses were let fall into ruin.

Water John

Hugh Wallace was incorrect when he stated, many of these houses were burnt in the civil war, or as a sort of retaliation or cleansing.
It was during the War of Independence. An order was sent out from Dublin to have these large houses burnt. The purpose was, so that the Crown forces would not use them as barracks, in the countryside. The families were always evacuated, prior to burning. It was sad, but done as a specific policy.
Just to correct the record.

baldbear

Water John wrote: »

Hugh Wallace was incorrect when he stated, many of these houses were burnt in the civil war, or as a sort of retaliation or cleansing.
It was during the War of Independence. An order was sent out from Dublin to have these large houses burnt. The purpose was, so that the Crown forces would not use them as barracks, in the countryside. The families were always evacuated, prior to burning. It was sad, but done as a specific policy.
Just to correct the record.

Around 200 were burnt during the civil war. It was a terrible stain on our history. Destroying beautiful buildings & some sectariansism.

honeybear

Is there much land with the property?

James 007

honeybear wrote: »

Is there much land with the property?

7.19 acres, I cant believe he bought it for 80k back then. Of course no one would of touched it as it would of cost a dime to do it up.

https://www.myhome.ie/commercial/brochure/ballinafad-college-belcarra-ballinrobe-mayo/2482516

Birdsong

While I enjoyed the show, I couldn't warm to Hugh Wallace as presenter/ voice over. While he knows his stuff, he didn't have a passion like say Francis Brennan or Dermot Brannon. His voice over was mono tone also.

mugsymugsy

Birdsong wrote: »

While I enjoyed the show, I couldn't warm to Hugh Wallace as presenter/ voice over. While he knows his stuff, he didn't have a passion like say Francis Brennan or Dermot Brannon. His voice over was mono tone also.

I agree at the start though I did warm to him as he genuinely seemed impressed with the work and the project they had undertaken.

honeybear

mugsymugsy wrote: »

I agree at the start though I did warm to him as he genuinely seemed impressed with the work and the project they had undertaken.

Hugh fan here. I liked him on Home of the Year also. No one comes close to Kevin McCloud for me

Del.Monte

I enjoyed that, but that house is one giant money pit and I'm dubious that only €540,000 has been spent to date - even allowing for the owner's input and volunteer labour. I wish them well.

ouxbbkqtswdfaw

Del.Monte wrote:

I enjoyed that, but that house is one giant money pit and I'm dubious that only €540,000 has been spent to date - even allowing for the owner's input and volunteer labour. I wish them well.

Agree. And I wonder how much the period furniture cost?

gozunda

honeybear wrote: »

Hugh fan here. I liked him on Home of the Year also. No one comes close to Kevin McCloud for me

Ya very good presenter imo. One to watch ...

gozunda

baldbear wrote: »

Around 200 were burnt during the civil war. It was a terrible stain on our history. Destroying beautiful buildings & some sectariansism.

Many of the big houses burnt during the civil war was as a direct result of their owners having been selected as senators in the first Irish government. It was somewhat Ironic in that they were attempting to do their best given the circumstances and instead ended up getting burned out ...

Local guy here went for the Seanad at that time and only reason the house wasn't burned was that in addition he provided a safe house for the local republican forces.

Amberjack

I really feel that people like Bede should be given some sort of grant to do up properties like this one. In fairness, they’re doing us a service by protecting our heritage and keeping historical relics.
I had just watched the Francis Brennan’s programme where they had €1million to do up a hotel in a Monaghan that seemed in relatively good nick (inside) and then Bede had €500k todo up a complete ruin.

Teyla Emmagan

i5by8lsd3fgapz wrote:

Agree. And I wonder how much the period furniture cost?

Could have been reproductions. I know the final rooms were beautifully presented, but they didn't look like they had huge money spent on them to me. Coat of paint on the walls and some gold furniture that could have come from anywhere. But overall he did an amazing job, I hope it works out for them.

It's amazing to think of how much of the original house remained untouched. Like they only did 3 rooms, the tip of the iceberg! That house was just ginormous. For me the best room was the ballroom/theatre. That floor!! Just stunning.

I love people like this, with vision and guts, willing to put their talents and skills to use. Fair play to Bede, he's amazing.

august12

Teyla Emmagan wrote:

It's amazing to think of how much of the original house remained untouched. Like they only did 3 rooms, the tip of the iceberg! That house was just ginormous. For me the best room was the ballroom/theatre. That floor!! Just stunning.

I think they did one third of the house, some achievement with such a small budget given the task at hand, saved a small fortune on the restoration of the windows, isn't afraid of hard work either, noting seemed to phase him.

Addle

Amberjack wrote: »

I really feel that people like Bede should be given some sort of grant to do up properties like this one. In fairness, they’re doing us a service by protecting our heritage and keeping historical relics.
I had just watched the Francis Brennan’s programme where they had €1million to do up a hotel in a Monaghan that seemed in relatively good nick (inside) and then Bede had €500k todo up a complete ruin.

Agree.
We don't do anything to proactive to protect our protected structures.

hometruths

Addle wrote: »

Agree.
We don't do anything to proactive to protect our protected structures.

There is Section 482 relief - income tax relief on the expenses incurred in maintenance and restoration.

pinkypinky

Section 482 requires you to have days when the house is open to the public as well though.

BattleCorp

pinkypinky wrote: »

Section 482 requires you to have days when the house is open to the public as well though.

That's easy to do. Make it available to the public on certain days but don't tell them about it.

recipio

Bit of a lazy production. A more detailed history of the house would have been nice or photos of the Blake family Did he refurbish the windows on site -if so did he have a workshop etc.? I like Hugh Wallace but any heritage programmes like this on RTE are always seem a bit lightweight to compared to the Channel 4 stuff.

Sleepy

Really enjoyed the show and very impressed with the owner, loved his ingenuity to get cheap labour for the windows: hire a journeyman joiner and provide him with an aprenticeship in the restoration of sash windows (an extremely lucrative niche of the trade).

In terms of grants, depending on the local authority I believe some have heritage grants you can apply to for fund matching on specific works to properties of note (I'm hoping to avail of it myself at some stage due to living in an Architectural Conservation Area).

Any idea where we're off to this Sunday?

mugsymugsy

Think this could be a really good episode. Seems like another person with real commitment to a project

Tipp star

Beautiful house.

honeybear

Budget is tiny

mugsymugsy

honeybear wrote: »

Budget is tiny

Yeah seems crazy. Could do with a zero on the end of his budget

honeybear

Great visit to Shaw’s house